If we're so smart, why are we so fat?
I've got a killer new article today that will get you thinking below.
But first, I just want to make sure you didn't miss the brand new article I published over the weekend that is quickly becoming one of the most popular on the site: The top 20 food rules to get a flat stomach, boost metabolism, and prevent diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
Alright, let's get going on today's new article below by one of my favorite authors, Dr. Jonny Bowden...
If We're So Smart, Why are We So Fat?
by Dr. Jonny Bowden - PhD, CNS, author: Unleash Your Thin
If we’re all so smart, then why are we so fat? Good question.
Maybe not every individual, but as a society, we are definitely fat, as 70% of the adult population is currently obese or overweight.
Let’s cut to the executive summary: it’s not because we don’t know what to do.
Take hormones, for example. You’ve probably heard a thousand times how important hormones are for weight loss.
You probably already know that insulin—aka “the fat storage hormone”—is produced by the body in response to elevations in blood sugar.
Elevations in blood sugar are produced whenever you scarf down carbohydrates—particularly the high-sugar, high-glycemic processed carbs we Americans love so much.
So the solution is easy, right? Cut out the carbs!
Not so Fast...
If it’s so easy, then why do so many of us have so much trouble doing that?
Why, in the face of the massive amount of information showing that high-glycemic (high-sugar) carbohydrates contribute to weight gain, heart disease and even cancer, do so many of us continue to binge on the very foods that make us sick, tired, depressed and fat?
Why do we continue to overindulge in pasta, cookies, chips, candies, ice cream, cereal and donuts, while ignoring what we know to be true about them?
Why do we continue to find these foods irresistible?
And why do we ignore what we already know about them, much as a cigarette smoker ignores the connection between tobacco and lung cancer?
It’s Because Your Brain has Been Hijacked...
The “pleasure centers” in our brains have literally been hijacked.
We’ve lost control of a primitive biological switch buried deep in our brain that controls what we pay attention to, how we act and most importantly, what we eat.
I call this the “impulse control switch” and for most of us, it’s gone completely haywire and we find ourselves eating precisely the things we know we shouldn’t.
At a recent workshop I conducted in Southern California, one woman described her struggles with junk food.
“I’d find myself obsessing about Haagen-Dazs,” she said. “I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t even want the ice cream. But I got excited about driving to the supermarket and buying it. The anticipation turned me on. The ice cream was almost an afterthought.”
This woman illustrates an important point: eating and the desire to eat are two different things and involve separate mechanisms in your brain.
How does this happen? Simple.
It’s all controlled by a brain chemical called dopamine. Dopamine controls pleasure and contributes to your brain’s “reward circuitry” for food or anything else desirable.
How Your Impulse Control Switch Gets Flipped in the Wrong Direction...
Dopamine’s role is to keep you totally focused on getting things that are critical for the survival of the species – like food, shelter or sex.
When we go after those things, we feel intense pleasure – something that is fueled entirely by dopamine.
The only problem is that we’ve discovered a few sneaky ways to trick our brains into releasing dopamine to get a fake chemical “high”... for example, with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.
The “rush” you get from these things is also fueled entirely by dopamine. It’s the biological reason you get hooked.
And, as it turns out, the dopamine factories that ignite when you chug a beer or inject heroin are the exact same ones that fire up when you eat sugar or high-sugar foods!
In fact, some studies have shown that sugar is MORE addicting than cocaine —a startling fact that Dr. Oz recently discussed on his show.
And in today’s world with super-addicting food everywhere, our dopamine factories light up like Christmas trees, our brains get hijacked and we become utterly helpless to resist that mouth-watering bowl of buttery pasta that’s calling our name!
Have You Been Attacked by a Dopamine Bomb?
Addiction specialists refer to things that create these “dopamine bombs” as “super-stimuli”.
Think drugs, alcohol, skydiving, the internet, "adult" videos, and sugar. These are literally super-sized versions of everyday experiences. They flood your brain with feel-good dopamine.
Do them often enough and eventually you become desensitized to anything that doesn’t produce the same massive dopamine rush.
This re-programs your brain in a very bad way, leaving you wanting – in fact, needing – more and more of these dopamine-spiking substances to get the same effect.
Translation: your cravings for refined carbs, for sugar and all of the other things that make you sick and fat go through the roof and become almost impossible to resist!
And here’s the catch – for or nearly everyone, repeated exposure disables the behavior control switch that says “enough!”
That means that even if you don’t consider yourself an “addict” with an addictive personality, you can and will still suffer the consequences of being attacked by dopamine bombs, whether from drugs, alcohol and most importantly, food.
Can You Really Be Addicted to Food?
The same impulse control switch that drives some people to cocaine addiction also works to make you obsess over rewarding foods.
IMPORTANT: Don’t think for a second that this doesn’t apply to you because you are not an “addict”. This applies to every single one of you without you even knowing it!
And that’s why so many people can’t figure out why they can’t keep the weight off for good.
The more delicious and pleasurable a food, the more attention you give it. The more attention you give it, the more passionately you seek it out.
Unfortunately, these rewarding foods are exactly the ones that spike your blood sugar, cause your insulin to soar, and ultimately flip off your fat-burning hormonal switch.
That's when you become sick and fat.
Dopamine fuels your drive to go out and get Haagen-Dazs or a Cinnabon and it’s responsible for making you feel like nothing else will satisfy you.
That's one powerful brain chemical ...
Pair that delicious, palatable food with a powerful emotional stimuli—say, that wonderful memory of eating your grandmother’s apple pie—and those powerful associations release so much dopamine that your reward circuits become hijacked.
Willpower doesn’t have a chance.
Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS aka “the Rogue Nutritionist”
PS – When I do my lectures on this “impulse control switch,” I get overwhelmed with additional questions about how exactly someone can take back control over their impulses … to avoid eating the foods they know they shouldn’t and to avoid the other behaviors that force them to become sick, fat, tired and depressed.
So, I put together an entertaining presentation that will show you exactly how to do it yourself, how to activate your impulse control switch and get you on a path to a slimmer waist, a better mood and more vibrant health.
Remember, most of us KNOW exactly what to do to lose fat; but unless and until you get control over your impulses, that knowledge will be useless.
So please enjoy this entertaining presentation in which I explain exactly how to get control of your impulses, protect yourself again these dopamine bombs and unleash the slim, sexy and healthy person that’s been hiding inside you all along.
------------------------------
Make sure to check out Jonny's site... he's one of the true nutrition experts out there that I trust these days, and he always puts out great information.
Good luck!
Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
But first, I just want to make sure you didn't miss the brand new article I published over the weekend that is quickly becoming one of the most popular on the site: The top 20 food rules to get a flat stomach, boost metabolism, and prevent diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
Alright, let's get going on today's new article below by one of my favorite authors, Dr. Jonny Bowden...
If We're So Smart, Why are We So Fat?
by Dr. Jonny Bowden - PhD, CNS, author: Unleash Your Thin
If we’re all so smart, then why are we so fat? Good question.
Maybe not every individual, but as a society, we are definitely fat, as 70% of the adult population is currently obese or overweight.
Let’s cut to the executive summary: it’s not because we don’t know what to do.
Take hormones, for example. You’ve probably heard a thousand times how important hormones are for weight loss.
You probably already know that insulin—aka “the fat storage hormone”—is produced by the body in response to elevations in blood sugar.
Elevations in blood sugar are produced whenever you scarf down carbohydrates—particularly the high-sugar, high-glycemic processed carbs we Americans love so much.
So the solution is easy, right? Cut out the carbs!
Not so Fast...
If it’s so easy, then why do so many of us have so much trouble doing that?
Why, in the face of the massive amount of information showing that high-glycemic (high-sugar) carbohydrates contribute to weight gain, heart disease and even cancer, do so many of us continue to binge on the very foods that make us sick, tired, depressed and fat?
Why do we continue to overindulge in pasta, cookies, chips, candies, ice cream, cereal and donuts, while ignoring what we know to be true about them?
Why do we continue to find these foods irresistible?
And why do we ignore what we already know about them, much as a cigarette smoker ignores the connection between tobacco and lung cancer?
It’s Because Your Brain has Been Hijacked...
The “pleasure centers” in our brains have literally been hijacked.
We’ve lost control of a primitive biological switch buried deep in our brain that controls what we pay attention to, how we act and most importantly, what we eat.
I call this the “impulse control switch” and for most of us, it’s gone completely haywire and we find ourselves eating precisely the things we know we shouldn’t.
At a recent workshop I conducted in Southern California, one woman described her struggles with junk food.
“I’d find myself obsessing about Haagen-Dazs,” she said. “I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t even want the ice cream. But I got excited about driving to the supermarket and buying it. The anticipation turned me on. The ice cream was almost an afterthought.”
This woman illustrates an important point: eating and the desire to eat are two different things and involve separate mechanisms in your brain.
How does this happen? Simple.
It’s all controlled by a brain chemical called dopamine. Dopamine controls pleasure and contributes to your brain’s “reward circuitry” for food or anything else desirable.
How Your Impulse Control Switch Gets Flipped in the Wrong Direction...
Dopamine’s role is to keep you totally focused on getting things that are critical for the survival of the species – like food, shelter or sex.
When we go after those things, we feel intense pleasure – something that is fueled entirely by dopamine.
The only problem is that we’ve discovered a few sneaky ways to trick our brains into releasing dopamine to get a fake chemical “high”... for example, with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.
The “rush” you get from these things is also fueled entirely by dopamine. It’s the biological reason you get hooked.
And, as it turns out, the dopamine factories that ignite when you chug a beer or inject heroin are the exact same ones that fire up when you eat sugar or high-sugar foods!
In fact, some studies have shown that sugar is MORE addicting than cocaine —a startling fact that Dr. Oz recently discussed on his show.
And in today’s world with super-addicting food everywhere, our dopamine factories light up like Christmas trees, our brains get hijacked and we become utterly helpless to resist that mouth-watering bowl of buttery pasta that’s calling our name!
Have You Been Attacked by a Dopamine Bomb?
Addiction specialists refer to things that create these “dopamine bombs” as “super-stimuli”.
Think drugs, alcohol, skydiving, the internet, "adult" videos, and sugar. These are literally super-sized versions of everyday experiences. They flood your brain with feel-good dopamine.
Do them often enough and eventually you become desensitized to anything that doesn’t produce the same massive dopamine rush.
This re-programs your brain in a very bad way, leaving you wanting – in fact, needing – more and more of these dopamine-spiking substances to get the same effect.
Translation: your cravings for refined carbs, for sugar and all of the other things that make you sick and fat go through the roof and become almost impossible to resist!
And here’s the catch – for or nearly everyone, repeated exposure disables the behavior control switch that says “enough!”
That means that even if you don’t consider yourself an “addict” with an addictive personality, you can and will still suffer the consequences of being attacked by dopamine bombs, whether from drugs, alcohol and most importantly, food.
Can You Really Be Addicted to Food?
The same impulse control switch that drives some people to cocaine addiction also works to make you obsess over rewarding foods.
IMPORTANT: Don’t think for a second that this doesn’t apply to you because you are not an “addict”. This applies to every single one of you without you even knowing it!
And that’s why so many people can’t figure out why they can’t keep the weight off for good.
The more delicious and pleasurable a food, the more attention you give it. The more attention you give it, the more passionately you seek it out.
Unfortunately, these rewarding foods are exactly the ones that spike your blood sugar, cause your insulin to soar, and ultimately flip off your fat-burning hormonal switch.
That's when you become sick and fat.
Dopamine fuels your drive to go out and get Haagen-Dazs or a Cinnabon and it’s responsible for making you feel like nothing else will satisfy you.
That's one powerful brain chemical ...
Pair that delicious, palatable food with a powerful emotional stimuli—say, that wonderful memory of eating your grandmother’s apple pie—and those powerful associations release so much dopamine that your reward circuits become hijacked.
Willpower doesn’t have a chance.
Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS aka “the Rogue Nutritionist”
PS – When I do my lectures on this “impulse control switch,” I get overwhelmed with additional questions about how exactly someone can take back control over their impulses … to avoid eating the foods they know they shouldn’t and to avoid the other behaviors that force them to become sick, fat, tired and depressed.
So, I put together an entertaining presentation that will show you exactly how to do it yourself, how to activate your impulse control switch and get you on a path to a slimmer waist, a better mood and more vibrant health.
Remember, most of us KNOW exactly what to do to lose fat; but unless and until you get control over your impulses, that knowledge will be useless.
So please enjoy this entertaining presentation in which I explain exactly how to get control of your impulses, protect yourself again these dopamine bombs and unleash the slim, sexy and healthy person that’s been hiding inside you all along.
------------------------------
Make sure to check out Jonny's site... he's one of the true nutrition experts out there that I trust these days, and he always puts out great information.
Good luck!
Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
posted by Mike Geary at
11:27 PM
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